The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1887-10-13


| shall always cherish this as the kindest
token in my entire artistic career.
PENCIL MARGINALIA--FO SUM-
DAY READING.
BY H. F. NJ.
Especial Cor. STATE CHRoNICLE.l
Ihave been much taken to task for my
preference of Campbel's simile of the
waiting bride and the Glove lighted watch
fire to any other single eloquent sentence
IN our language. An accomplished lady
prefers Horace Walpoles encomium on
John SomerS: ''He was one of those
divine men who remain like a chapel in
the midst of palace, aloof and unpro-
famed, while all around is tyranny, cor
ruption and folly" This, is, certainly,
very fine, but can't give it precedence to
Campbells immortal lines. BE it re
membered, as the law transcripts WILL
have it, that | am speaking but of single
SENTENCES. If | were referring to a com
plete eloquent thought, | don't know
where | could find anything superior to
the following from Carlyle: go blessed
Hope, sole boon of man; whereby on his
strait prison walls are painted beautiful
far-stretching landscapes; and into the
very night of Death is she'd holiest dawn.
Thou art to all an indefeasible possession
in this Gods world; to the wise a sacred
Constantine'S banner, written on the eter
| nal skies; under which they SHALL conquer,
for the battle itself is victory; to the fool
ish some secular MIRAGE, or shadow of
still waters, painted on the parched earth,
whereby at least their dusty pilgrimage, If
| devious, becomes cheerfuller, becomes
possible.
IN. larnchaI he
| quence, where SHALL one find the highest
| surging billow or the deepest running cur
rent? The sea itself abounds, as a theme,
| in illustrations of the vast divergence be-
tween genuine and vainly attempted sub
| Unity. Pollok most patnetlcally appeals
| to our sympathy where, in the Seventh
| Book of his Course of Time, he illustrates
| how thoroughly and suicidally. yet quite
unconsciously, he has observed Blon' 5
maxium, ''know THYSELF," in his Splut-
tering aud scattering verbal expectora-
| tons, in impotent endeavor to depict the
! efforts of OTHERS who thought
| and wondered still, AND GRAsPED, AND
| GRAsPED, AND GRAsPED.
| To comprehend incomprehensible:
| And wondered more, AND FELT THEIR LIT
! TLENEsS,'
| and futile efforts to appreciate and describe
| the marvels of the great deep.
| Contrast, now, the grand simplicity of
/ him who '.laid his hand upon the Oceans
name and PLAYED FAMILIAR with his hoary
| locks" Or, contrast again, if you would
compare genuine grandeur OF poetic
| thought with the s'mouthng" Of a stage
struck poetaster, the above "would l.
could" of Pollok with these words from
the inspired Shepherd Of Professor Will
/ sons "Noctes Ambrosianae:"
| Il could ma thOle to leeve on the sea
| shore That everlastin thunner sac dis
| turbs my imagination that my soul has nae
rest in its ain solitude, but becomes trans
fused as it were into thy michly ocean, a
/ its thoughts as wild as the waves that keep
foamn' ava into naething, and then
breakin' back again into transltory life
| forever and ever and ever-as If neither
| IN sunshine nor moonlight, that MULTITU
| DINOUS STUMULTUOUSNESS, frae the first crea-
ton O. the world, had ever once been
stilled in the blessedness O perfect sleep.
O. that grand old sea. CAN who have seen
! and loved and trusted to its billOws, far
F, and near, leave 1t without one more tribute
| not less potent than that which came IN
HNeptune's plea" to the sor1ower for Lyci-
das. Heine says, 'The ocean knows ev-
erything At night the stars conhde 10
it the most hidden secrets Of the frma-
ment; in its depths among the fabulous
long drowned empires, lie the ancient,
long forgotten loves of the EARTH at every
coast it listens with d thousand bllowy
! caves dropping ears; and tbs rivers that
flow into it bring to it tidings gathered IN
the most distant inland countries, even the
, babi,.:. Of the brooks and mountain springs
which they have overheard.
| can never forget that it Wae the vii
lain Iago who said, "Oh, gracious lady, da
not put me to it, FOR AN NOTHING If MOI
CRITICAL 1t is the literary lago OF the
dav who still canaot comment in any terms
BIT censorious ones upon the efforts of his
cotemporaries. While this Is so, however
T regard as only less obnoxious than Other
los 'saneieatn the former who has nc
words but those OF adGlation for such as
his fiattery would indicate, by Kind o.
ssoratio obliqua," to stand greatly IN neeo
of ar-coating." | accept what NIGH
term the DIssENTIENT INQUIRY OF Mr. Lacy
in the last issue of the CHRONICLE, as t'
wby nv stMarginalia" are dedicated t.
SUNDAY reading" ! admit that he Il
right in his observation that no special re
, ligious feature has, so FAR, apps ared there
in; and, in part can only follow the ex
ample Of England's great conqueror of tn
East and plead, in another sense, SI.c Z,
3 eayi''-I have Scinde. The truth is, Tia
, when | designed this heading had con
templated for my writings more rellg
ious tone than they have cotas 70 bear
Another thought which suggested my titi
, was drawn from the consideration that tn
"sn :.snnday' papers and SUNDAY maya
zines" like Frank Leslie's, edited by, lead
: ing divines of the country, are made up
for the most part, Of secular matter, non
political in character. However, TO To
, extent that AN wrong, shall not plea
, s.communis error facit JUS" but shall tr
to ameud-as, for instance, by comment
ing in the next CHRONICLE on ReV. III
: Hughes "Genesis and Geology as CON
pared with Chateaubrland views OF IN
, Creation and Michael Angeles fresco O
Adam.
IL W;lI ,,o1 dream of me tO-nightl